12.10.2013:
A long time since I have updated the Blog. This is
because Chris and I have had a particular trying time since we sailed from the
Golf of St Tropez on 20 September, where we have had a lot of adverse weather,
with winds on the nose on many occasions, but also some good sailing from time
to time. We have had to anchor a few times and wait until the weather calmed.
In addition we have had some bad luck with technical issues all along the way.
One of the most important one, was that we noted water in the engine room
which came from a leaking Shaft Seal and we had to stop the engine and head for
the Almerimar Marina, which has a 110 t Travel Lift, which is ideal to haul out
New Dawn, in case it would be needed.
The week at the Marina was spend together with a
German engineer and as he could not repair the seal while we were in the
water, we ended up hauling out and changed the Shaft Seal (lucky I had a spare
on board) and also changed the Cutlass Bearing (which I also had a spare on
board). After a week we were launched and did yet another sea trial, and it
seemed to hold.
Chris flew back to Beauvallon on 4 October and two of
the crew (Knut and Krijn) arrived via Malaga airport. We did a big shopping and
set sail heading for Gibraltar and moored at Alcadisa Marina for three days,
while we drove back and fourth to Cadiz to have the Life Raft serviced. I
picked up the Raft yesterday and did a last shopping (bought a new HP Desk jet
3050A J611 series printer) and dropped
the car hire last night. We managed however to have a day in Cadiz, which is a
small town and the photos from the visit is set out below.
This morning we fuelled in Gibraltar and motored
west, with the wind and current on the nose.
Today it is Stephane’s 30 years birthday and I managed
to call him before we lost phone connection.
13.10.2013 at 03:30:
After too much motoring yesterday, by end afternoon,
we received to wind we had been looking for from the WNW and as we rounded the
NW point of Morocco, we could set the sails and again enjoy a super sail
without using the engine. We altered the course to increase the speed, knowing
the wind would change later in the evening to a more NW.
Last night while eating Knud’s nice Samon Pasta, we
got a nice Red Tuna on the hook. It was a good size and Knud cut it into 11
steaks, which are now cooling in the freezer.
The night has been good to us with some variable wind,
slowly getting a northerly element in it. The swell is acceptable and the waves
are almost from the same westerly direction. There is, as usual, quite some
traffic along the Moroccan coast and many are heading for Casablanca and others
further south.
Big shopping done in El Cortes Ingles, Las Palmas.
The watch plan to Mindelo.
Visiting Columbus's House in Las Palmas.
About half way (total distance is about 860 Nm).
Lost the steering with "Auto" after only two days out of Las Palmas and after having spend about EUR 900 having the system repaired. We think the chap did not fix the screws, as half were off as can be seen on this photo and the other half were almost also off. We hope we managed to fix the steering and it held OK the following four days. Cross the fingers.
This shows the route from south France to Cap Verde.
I found a large screw on the deck one day during my routine inspection. Knut went up in the mast again and rightly found that two screws for the Si-Tex radar mount were missing and he could repair it.
New Dawn in Mindelo Marina.
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